(JWR) --- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com) WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT NOW that the impeachment ordeal has
stumbled to a close and politicians vow to do "the people's business"?
Expect more fighting.

The prosperity we now enjoy has become the bane of Democrats and
Republicans because it has stolen any sense of urgency from the issues both
have relied upon for the past 25 years.

Begin with the GOP. The tax issue, the latest best hope of the party of
Lincoln and Reagan, packs no punch even though we surrender more of our pay
than ever to government.

Why? Several explanations: In the past 35 years, our top tax rate has
fallen from 92 percent to 39.6 percent. Half the citizens in this country
pay next to no income tax. The top 50 percent of wage earners shells out an
astounding 96 percent of all federal income taxes; the top 10 percent pays
nearly two-thirds of the bill.

You might think the rich would feel put out, but they're not fussing. Cuts
in the capital gains tax have let investors keep more of their
boom-generated bounty and encouraged investors to spend more time looking
for the next Microsoft.

Lower taxes also have lured people back to work. The employment ratio --
the proportion of work-eligible adults who hold jobs -- stands at 64.5
percent, the highest on record. In many households, both parents punch the
clock. But chances are, they get home together: The length of the average
work week hasn't changed appreciably since late 1989.

One other factor has eased the pain of high taxes. Michael Cox and Richard
Alm of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas have documented how much more we
can buy today than in ages past. Just 30 years ago, a gigantic mainframe
computer could perform up to 12.7 million calculations per second.

It cost
far more than most people earned in their lifetimes. Today, we can go to an
appliance store, plunk down $800 and take home a system that's 15 times as
powerful as the 1970s behemoth. To take another example: The amount of time
we had to work to afford a cell phone has dropped more than 98 percent in
the last 15 years.

Consider the phenomenon from another angle. The average home of 1956 was a
one-story ranch. It had none of the following: central heat, central air
conditioning, insulation in the walls, dishwasher, refrigerator, range,
microwave, garage-door opener, storm windows and fireplace. The garbage
disposal was known as "Fido." Today's average house has all these things,
two stories, twice as many bathrooms and a garage. It is 70 percent larger
than the 1956 model and costs less per square foot (with "cost" being
measured by how long we have to work to pay for it).

We feel good these days because we expect the trend to continue. And
perhaps it will. Brian Wesbury of Griffin, Kubic, Stephens and Thompson Inc.
notes in his most recent newsletter that productivity growth has hit "record
levels." Laissez les bon temps roulez!

We spend our idle hours fretting not about the economy, but about matters
of home and hearth. We want our kids to grow up healthy and good. We want
schools to teach the basics. We want prisons to lock up the bad people. And
we want state authorities to build new roads and fill potholes in the old
ones.

Republicans make the mistake of talking about taxes in accounting terms
rather than human ones. They deliver carny huckster promises of what an
additional four bucks per day could mean for the average family of four.
What bothers people about taxes isn't the money -- but time. When taxes
rise, we work longer to pay the bills and we lose life's one unrecoverable
treasure -- time with our families, our friends and our hobbies.

The good economy also has undercut liberal Democrats. In the Camelot years,
we shared President Kennedy's belief that "man holds in his mortal hands the
power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life."

We have lowered our sights since then -- from moonshots to blue dresses;
from the New Frontier to the Mr. Goodwrench theory of government.
Bill Clinton's most recent State of the Union Address featured 99 new
programs, not half of which he or his speech writers could name today. His
suggestions were political cotton candy -- sweet and quick to dissolve. They
offered eloquent testimony to the fact that we no longer trust the
government to do big jobs other than wars.

So, irony of ironies! The booming economy has both parties atwitter.
Neither knows what to do or how to sell its wares. How, then, will they
distinguish themselves from one another? In all likelihood, by doing what
they've done the last five years -- seizing on small differences and ripping
each other to
shreds.

02/11/99: What exactly does George W. stand for?02/08/99: Run, GOPers, run?02/04/99: The languid sigh of waves lapping ashore02/01/99: Verbal vortex01/28/99: To be a ‘sell-out’ or an unelectable pol --- that is the question01/25/99: The apogee of a trend01/21/99:What my 3-year-old taught me01/17/99:Don't be fooled, folks01/14/99: Must a pol be ‘baaaad’ in order to get elected?01/12/99: Jumpin’ Jack (Kemp)01/08/99 : Hot air in the Windy City